If this is your first visit, be sure to
check out the FAQ by clicking the
link above. You may have to register
before you can post: click the register link above to proceed. To start viewing messages,
select the forum that you want to visit from the selection below.

Zach Lowe on Lance's past, present, and future.

Excellent write up. Lets enjoy this season, because I think it is either hoping for George to forgo the higher extension (ala Westbrook) and use the stretch provision on Cope/Ian, or lose Scola. Danny is gone, unless he signs for minimum.

Numbers from the SportVU data-tracking cameras provided exclusively to Grantland bear this out. Stephenson is dribbling the ball about 125 times per game this season, up from a paltry 65.5 bounces last season, according to the data. His per-game time of possession has jumped from about 90 seconds to nearly three minutes, and he's touching the ball about twice as often. He has assisted on nearly 29 percent of Indiana's baskets while on the floor, roughly equivalent to last season's marks for a bunch of high-quality starting point guards with strong secondary distributors around them and/or score-first duties — Stephen Curry, Ty Lawson, Damian Lillard, Kyrie Irving, and others. Stephenson is also using up more possessions for his own shots, and yet his turnover rate hasn't budged at all.

Remember: Stephenson has never even sniffed a league-average Player Efficiency Rating, and he barely played over the first two years of his career. This is not James Harden coming off his rookie contract.

The Following 3 Users Say Thank You to PacerDude For This Useful Post:

Re: Zach Lowe on Lance's past, present, and future.

Remember the last 'star' the Pacers had who took less money than was available to him to help the team? Oh yeah, Granger! I don't know why Westbrook passed on his Max raise, but I don't expect PG to do the same. PG has a finite amount of years to make the money he has the chance to make. Giving part of it back is not really in his best interest. Having said that however, if the Pacers win or even make the Finals, it might be worth the money to PG to keep the core of the team together. Bosh, James and Wade may have changed the way young players look at the money versus wins thing.

Re: Zach Lowe on Lance's past, present, and future.

Remember the last 'star' the Pacers had who took less money than was available to him to help the team? Oh yeah, Granger! I don't know why Westbrook passed on his Max raise, but I don't expect PG to do the same. PG has a finite amount of years to make the money he has the chance to make. Giving part of it back is not really in his best interest. Having said that however, if the Pacers win or even make the Finals, it might be worth the money to PG to keep the core of the team together. Bosh, James and Wade may have changed the way young players look at the money versus wins thing.

He and his agent will have to do some sort of cost-benefit. It's a lot of money to leave on the table though.

Re: Zach Lowe on Lance's past, present, and future.

If PG passes on the raise like Westbrook it could help out with 3 more million salary to give to Lance. PG is a humble guy I wouldn't be surprised if he did it.

I think Lowe's wording was off here. Westbrook passed on a raise by negotiating a contract that does not allow for the supermax. Paul G from what we know from media reports, negotiated an extension deal that was above the 25% max, but below the absolute max (30%). I'm pretty sure that contract can't be negotiated downwards now.

Anyone who's smart on the salary cap situation, what are some ways the Pacers could do trades with their bench players, either Scola or Cope to free up cap space? Is that a possibility?

There are always ways. The question is what it would cost. Scola has a mostly unguaranteed deal next year, so getting his money off the books is relatively easy. Copeland's cap hit can be removed by trading him for an expiring this year, or to a team with cap space next year.

I think Lowe is understating Stephenson's importance to the Pacers. Myself, I'm convinced he's at minimum the third most important Pacer going forward. Letting him walk next summer shouldn't even be a consideration.

Re: Zach Lowe on Lance's past, present, and future.

Trading copeland to a team under the cap would be the easiest way to move salary, I cant believe people are suggesting dumping Scola!

It's not like anybody WANTS to dump Scola, but right now it's just the easiest way to free up more money for Lance if need be. Giving Copeland away for free sounds like no big deal, but trades are never easy.

Re: Zach Lowe on Lance's past, present, and future.

I think Lowe's wording was off here. Westbrook passed on a raise by negotiating a contract that does not allow for the supermax. Paul G from what we know from media reports, negotiated an extension deal that was above the 25% max, but below the absolute max (30%). I'm pretty sure that contract can't be negotiated downwards now.

That's how I understand it too. If George makes 1 of the All-NBA teams, he's getting the 30% max. And it can't be negotiated downward now.

Re: Zach Lowe on Lance's past, present, and future.

If not, the Pacers could theoretically waive both Copeland and Mahinmi under that provision, which would make the cap hit for their contracts be spread over 3 years.

$2.3mil per season instead of $7mil. That would give us an extra ~$4.7mil to work with.

Keep Scola on the books for his full $4.9 million, and you're up to just about $70 million with a couple of spots left to fill. (Both scenarios assume the Pacers keep Donald Sloan and Orlando Johnson on minimum-level deals.) In related news, the league expects the luxury tax line for 2014-15 to come in around $75.7 million.

That would get us down to $65.3mil for 9 players. If Lance got ~8mil per year then you would have to fill out the roster with vet min guys, but I think you could get it done.

If you only use the stretch provision on one of them, hopefully you can find a taker for a trade for the other one without taking back any salary.

It seems like it would be do-able if Lance is attainable in the 7-10mil range. Given how much Larry like Lance, I think he'll find a way to make it happen unless Lance gets a truly crazy offer.

The Following 2 Users Say Thank You to Dr. Awesome For This Useful Post:

Re: Zach Lowe on Lance's past, present, and future.

Its not like the whole bench would be min guys. You'd still have CJ, OJ, Solo, Scola. If you could find a passable big for cheap to replace Mahinmi's minutes I wouldn't have a problem with the 3rd stringers being min guys.

Re: Zach Lowe on Lance's past, present, and future.

I'm not really too worried about it. Worst case scenario, we get in a bind and have to offer Copeland and a first round pick for some team to take his salary. I mean if we can move Gerald Green with multiple years on his contract, I'm pretty sure we can move Copeland if we actually had to. I'd rather just keep Copeland around though at least for this season. I think he'll play a significant role for us at some point, and this year, we're all in.

Re: Zach Lowe on Lance's past, present, and future.

I think this deals with an unintended consequence of the new luxury tax rates. The initial $5 million over the tax (which is a $1.50 to $1 ratio) actually hurts small market teams more than big market teams. If it was a $1 to $1 ratio for the first $5 million over, the Pacers may be willing to go a little into the luxury tax to re-sign Stephenson.